John Madigan joins Insiders

DLP Senator John Madigan joins Insiders to discuss his meeting with Treasurer Joe Hockey and the Federal Budget.

BARRIE CASSIDY, PRESENTER: Senator, good morning. Welcome.

JOHN MADIGAN, DEMOCRATIC LABOUR PARTY SENATOR: Good morning Barrie.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Looks like Joe Hockey wasn't very happy with you there, he certainly didn't expect to see the media.

JOHN MADIGAN: Oh well no, Mr Hockey's entitled to his opinion, but I'm entitled to mine.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Were the media invited by you or by him?

JOHN MADIGAN: No the media were invited by me, but at no time when Mr Hockey's office were making arrangements for the meeting did they say that there was to be no media there. Had of Mr Hockey's office asked for that, they would have got that.

BARRIE CASSIDY: How did it go after that?

JOHN MADIGAN: Look we had quite a frank discussion. It went on for over two hours. I appreciate the time that he gave us. It was more than I thought we would have got. But obviously there's some differences of opinion there.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Did you hold out any hope that you might get out of the way on some of these issues?

JOHN MADIGAN: I gave him an A4 double-sided page of suggestions, not just about helping those people who are the soft targets in our society who are being attacked, but also how to raise some revenue.

BARRIE CASSIDY: What is your biggest problem with it?

JOHN MADIGAN: I personally believe and the DLP, that it targets those people in our society who've got the least. They're being hit the hardest. An example is that with the budget deficit levy, on budget night, when I went into the lock-up ask I went to see what I was going to pay extra in tax, speaking for myself, it said for three years I'm going to be expected to pay an extra $200 a year for three years. Then I went to look and see where the Government were targeting their savings on those people on lower incomes and the savings that they're asking other people to contribute on low incomes are in definite, so I'm being asked to contribute for three years, they're being asked to contribute indefinitely, and I don't believe that's fair.

BARRIE CASSIDY: But then his task is to fix the budget and it's hardly a time for generosity.

JOHN MADIGAN: Well, yes, I don't doubt and I don't dispute the fact that the Treasurer has to run the country's finances. But what is going to be the destruction, and ultimately whatever we do it's about people. Now, if we attack those people with the least, I believe we're going to have more domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, vandalism, mental health problems - and what's the cost of that going to be to mop that up? It's bad enough now. It's out of control, a lot of these problems. I'm not suggesting that we knew that we can eliminate these things but I can tell you what, this budget, I believe, will exacerbate all of these problems and more.

BARRIE CASSIDY: How did you find Joe Hockey's demeanour? He delivered a speech this week where he said he felt everybody, certainly in the media, were against him.

JOHN MADIGAN: Well yes, he reiterated that to me. But well you know, sometimes I could say that sometimes about things I say. But that's...

BARRIE CASSIDY: What did he say to you?

JOHN MADIGAN: He said that he's one of the most disliked, hated people in it country with the budget he's got to bring down. I empathise with him, he's got a tough job, but he's got to do his job and I've got to do my job. I've got empathy for him. I wonder how much empathy he's got for those people who are going to be hit hard by this budget.

BARRIE CASSIDY: I wonder, though, whether his frustration too is built out of the reality of politics. The Coalition got more than 40 per cent of the vote at the last election. Those standing in his way, you, for example, what did you get in 2010, a little over 1 per cent?

JOHN MADIGAN: No, 2.34.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Two-point-three-four, against 40 per cent. So who should be wielding the power, who should be making the decisions?

JOHN MADIGAN: As we all know, the House of Representatives is where the Government is formed, the Senate is the House of review and that's the Senate's job. Now the Government's job is to bring forward legislation, which they've done, they've put it to the House, now it's coming to the Senate. We have a system. I respect the system. It's for the Government to respect the system and sit down and negotiate in a calm, logical, factual, honest manner.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Do you think it's easier for this Government to deal with the Greens or with a centre right Senate that seems to be the situation at the moment?

JOHN MADIGAN: It's a pretty eclectic mix in there at the moment, Barrie. There's some things the crossbench may agree on and disagree on but at the end of the day people voted for the mixture of the Senate as it is.

I don't hear anybody moaning about the way votes go when it suits them, but only when it doesn't suit them.

I think that our constitution and our form of Government has served us well. I believe it will continue to service the country well but it's up to each and every one of us to work at that and not undermine it.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Some people have expressed surprise just the same that somebody with one, two and three per cent of the vote can get elected to the Senate. And there was talk for awhile of some reform of that, but I assume now that's gone, that's dead because the Government needs your support?

JOHN MADIGAN: I don't believe it's dead. I believe it's just there simmering away in the background.

BARRIE CASSIDY: So there might be some reform?

JOHN MADIGAN: You look at it this way, there's a trough and the major participants in the trough are the Coalition, the ALP and the Greens and they don't want anybody else there other than themselves. We talk about a level playing field in business, we talk about democracy, but they only want a democracy that suits their agenda. Now, what are you frightened of? People have voted for the LDP, they've voted for Family First, they've voted for the DLP, they've voted for the PUP. All of these people put their name on a ballot paper, they campaigned in an election and people voted for them. That's a democracy.

Now if the Government is proposing, or the Opposition or the Greens, to tell people there's only three groupings, four groupings you can vote for, we're the only ones here that you're allowed to vote for, I don't believe that's a democracy. People have a right to vote how they wish and for whom they wish.

BARRIE CASSIDY: You are obviously pro life. Did any of that come up in your discussions with Joe Hockey?

JOHN MADIGAN: No, it did not.

BARRIE CASSIDY: What did you make of Eric Abetz's assertion, since denied of course, that there's a link between abortion and breast cancer?

JOHN MADIGAN: I've heard that argument. I've read a little bit on it. I think that if you're going to make statements on issues you need to do your homework. So I'm continuing to do my homework and reading both sides of the equation but, as you say, I'm unashamedly pro life and I make no apologies for it.

BARRIE CASSIDY: Have you been keeping an eye on the surrogacy issue, especially as it impacts on Indonesia?

JOHN MADIGAN: Yes, look, it's been - it's a terrible thing what's happened to that little boy. As we know, that whole question has kept simmering away and more and more things are coming to light, but this is an issue that needs to be addressed. We can't turn a blind eye to it and the sooner we address this issue as a country the better.

BARRIE CASSIDY: I'm talking about Thailand, of course not Indonesia and a lot of Australians who are desperate to have families have looked to Thailand for a resolution.

JOHN MADIGAN: Yeah, I've got friends who weren't able to have children. I don't agree with surrogacy myself. Not being able to have a child's a terrible thing. I have a friend, a couple of friends, whose partners or wives were adopted and a good mate of mine said to me there not so long ago, he said, 'do you realise such and such was adopted?' and I said no, I was quite surprised, and he said, 'you know, John, if I met her birth mother, I'd thank her, because through her generosity I got married and I've got four beautiful children.'